Wolves setting some undesirable records in Thibodeau era

PORTLAND – This season the Wolves have set some low marks in the Tom Thibodeau era. That continued on Sunday night.

Their 111-81 loss to the Trail Blazers represented the second 30-point defeat the Wolves have had this season – the other being to Milwaukee on Oct. 26. That tied the mark for most lopsided loss for the Thibodeau era.

Part of the reason Sunday was so miserable for the Wolves was they flat-out had trouble scoring.

They shot just 31.2 percent from the floor, which also represents a low for the Thibodeau era. It was the worst shooting performance for a Wolves team since a loss to the Heat on Dec. 7, 2013 in which they shot 29 percent. Karl-Anthony Towns was the only Wolves player to shoot over 50 percent (7 of 13).

“We just got outworked, especially a few men down,” forward Taj Gibson said. “We just got to do a better job as a whole, come out with a lot more energy, do the right things. We have to understand that nobody is going to help us. We have to be in the hunt and encourage each other. Just got to bounce back.”

They’ll have a chance to do that Monday against the Clippers.

Trying to rebound
The other part of the night that didn’t go well for the Wolves? Rebounding. The Trail Blazers outrebounded the Wolves 66-38, a margin that included them getting 17 offensive boards.

“The second shot was a problem all night,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “The rebounding was a problem, so to win on the road, obviously you have to play a lot better than that.”

The Wolves have the worst defensive rebounding percentage in the league at .659. That means the Wolves grab that many of every available defensive rebound. The league leaders in that stat are the Dallas Mavericks at 77.3 percent.

Why is this such a problem for the Wolves?

“There’s a lot of different ways you can look at it,” forward Anthony Tolliver said. “Defensively if we stay in front of people individually, then you can keep bodies on bodies, which gives you a better position for rebounds whenever your defense isn’t as good. … Whenever you get outrebounded by that many it’s a combination of obviously effort, but it’s a lot of different things that play into it.”

Making his debut
Jared Terrell, an undrafted rookie out of Rhode Island, made his Wolves debut on Sunday, playing 21 minutes in the loss. Terrell finished with four points on 1 of 8 shooting. But Thibodeau said Terrell’s tough night didn’t dissuade his overall opinion of Terrell.

“It’s tough for a guy like that,” Thibodeau said. “We like him a lot. We think he’s going to be a good player. But he comes in and basically he was in training camp, then he was down with the (Iowa) G-League team, but I like him a lot and he just needs time to learn and grown. We think he’s going to be a good player.”